It still feels like August, but if you look closely you’ll see that teams in the Premier League have played 7 games, it’s October, and we’re already into the second international break of the season.
Chelsea are top of the table, if you hadn’t noticed, after sealing a 3-1 win over Southampton and watching title rivals Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United all drop points at the weekend.
In fact, if you check the odds on mybettingsites.co.uk they will tell you that this team are second favourites for the title behind Man City – mainly because of the superior squad that Pep Guardiola has. But we’re not far off.
Nobody is getting overexcited, but the Blues are already ahead of where we might have expected given the tough start to the season they’ve had in terms of fixtures.
Yes the performances haven’t been brilliant, by and large, but we’re getting the points on the board, and we now head into an easier run of games with a strong platform to work from.
Having survived the absence of Mason Mount and N’Golo Kante, we should only grow stronger as we approach the winter period where titles are won and lost.
Thomas Tuchel certainly has a lot of work to do in this international period, but he will relish the time on the training pitch. Most of his first team will be away playing with their respective countries, but there are some breakout stars he can now really get technical with.
Saul Niguez has had a tough start to life in the Premier League, and another fortnight gelling with his teammates will only help him. Then there are the players who have managed to impress Thomas Tuchel in recent games, coming out of nowhere to become proper squad members and legitimate options for the manager. Both Ross Barkley and Ruben Loftus-Cheek can add some training ground work to their impressive cameos in actual matches.
By the time we’re back in action against Brentford on the 16th, any of those options could have made major steps in showing Tuchel what they can do, even without actual competitive games for them to play in.
There are also youngsters like Trevoh Chalobah, only recently introduced to the first team squad, who will be absorbing experience and information like a sponge. Every day will help him continue to grow.
If our manager can make good use of this fortnight to integrate his new faces, we can quickly close that gap.
